New Heaven / New Earth

Offered in Winter 2010 · New Course · Toronto (St. George Campus) Site

A variant reading of the Genesis story of creation and fall speaks of the process of humans’ maturing, becoming like God, in their knowledge of good and evil and capacities to act, and the implications–for good and ill–of their choices for all of creation. This reading seems especially challenging today in the midst of debates about the direction and control of scientific research, the development of promising and frightening new technologies, conflicts over “globalization,” and growing gaps between rich and poor. These debates are filled with images of God-like powers of discovery and invention, fantastic new technologies, medical miracles, unlimited progress, and a new golden era of affluence and ease; some even point to the emergence of humanly-engineered successor species and a transhuman or posthuman future. At the same time, these debates are haunted with images of widening gaps in incomes and wealth, growing suffering, deepening turmoil and chaos, apocalypse. Through seminars on significant debates about knowledge explosions, new technologies, multiple and uneven globalization(s), and alternative futures, and re-readings of biblical texts, we will probe the specifically theological/spiritual dimensions of these debates, with special reference to images of “playing God,” de-creation and re-creation or Genesis II, transcendence through technology, and hope that “another world is possible.” Readings, class participation, short papers, and (for AD students) research paper - adult learning process.